@
sstronaut I think the youth of today would recognise some of those as early versions of what they use, but I dare say there are very few people who could use a
scythe even if they could identify the tool as such!
Printed newspapers - still common in the UK, boith national and local. (My "local" paper is that only in some of its news contents. It is published by a national company called Newsquest, in turn swallowed by an American outfit aptly called Gannet - who made its quality dive like a sea-bird after a fish.)
Still plenty of brightly-coloured
magazines available - titles come and go; many of them either shallow "gossip" or dedicated to particular hobbies; but the volume of ink on paper does not seem to have diminished much.
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Telephone kiosks: a few are still in service in Britain where portable-telephone coverage is patchy. Many of the redundant telephone-boxes, with the instruments removed, have been turned to other community uses like miniature book-exchange libraries or to house defibrillators.
The
antique telephone: only the precursor to the dial telephones still in use in the 1980s. I am not sure when they were replaced by push-button versions for landline use, but it was a steady change, not an overnight revolution.
My first
portable-telephone was the next generation to those first-generation ones shown. Mine was small enough for a coat pocket, its ariel was only half an inch long. It needed new batteries after twelve years before needing new batteries; only two years later it became soaked in very wet weather, destroying the liquid-crystal, monochrome display.
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The
8-track tape system did not last long but I don't know if by commercial or technical drive. By that, analogously to the video-tapes: Betamax is said to have been better technically than the VHS system that crushed it by price competition.
The
Sony Walkmant has gone but a lot of music is still published on CDs; and many people have large CD collections. The only change is the style of player.
That combined
radio / cassette-player is pretty well obsolete although there must be very many people who still need equivalents for their sizeable libraries of tapes.
The
television has changed considerably to do basically the same thing - on top of assorted other functions now possible. The biggest change was the replacement of its cathode-ray tube display with an l.e.d. panel; allowing a much more compact unit overall.
Were the two shops,
video-rental /sales businesses? Presumably knocked out by the streaming services.
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I guess the technician is working on an
early computer by the sheer scale and appearance of the equipment. This shows the dramatic change by the invention of the transistor, an electronic switch. The ordinary, discreet transistor is the size of a pea and uses very low voltage and current, replacing the thermionic valve that needs a hefty high-voltage drive and emits quite a lot of heat. The modern computer is not only much more powerful than that one probably was. Its central processor packs vastly more microscopic transistors than the hundreds of valves visible in the photo, into a block the man in the picture could carry in his pocket. ("[Thermionic] Valve" = "Vacuum Tube" in America.)
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The car is a
DeLorean _ I needed Wikipedia to confirm it! Built for the American market, uniquely with stainless-steel bodywork and gull-wing doors, they looked high-performance but their Ford V6 engines (same as used in the 'Transit' van?) were not sufficiently powerful for vehicle probably too heavy as a 2-seater sports-car. The motor was originally to be the Wankel rotary type, but its manufacturer went out of business. John DeLorean's US-based company did not last long either, before becoming bankrupt, but over 6000 of the cars are thought still existing.
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Aha - the bunny-head: the trade-mark of
The Playboy Club (1960 - 1991, with assorted other business using the name subsequently). Very successful, expensive night-club and casino chain in its heyday; owned by Hugh Hefner. (In?)famous for its waitresses in saucy, rabbit-themed uniform... hence strict "Look, Don't Touch" rule imposed on the mainly-male clientele. Its London casino was the world's most successful for a time.
...
Finally the
chain-wrench: this, or similar chain or strap tools are still used. One of their most common uses is in changing the cylindrical oil-filter cartridges on vehicle engines. Smaller, somewhat similar tools are made as kitchen utensils, for unscrewing very tight bottle and jar tops.
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With acknowledgements to the National Museum of Health and Medicine for the image, you are looking back a long way if you remember this or similar, in a shoe-shop. Why was this particular model's name, "ShoeFlourscope", disingenuous?
This has American and other countries' equivalents. It is a "British Railways Standard... " what? Give yourself a bonus point if you why they are obsolete.
Goblin Model 855 'Teasmade'; launched in 1974. I was unable to find if similar ones are still made:
Courtesy of Quarry Bank Mill, Lancashire. This is an early domestic wringer (or "mangle") but modern, powered versions are used in commercial laundries.
